How My Heart Behaves
by Ellechillin
Summary: As the servants closed the doors, Naevia's eyes looked towards the street and could have sworn...know she knew it was him...Crixus. Crixus/Naevia
1. Chapter 1

Unfinished Business

"Why do you speak of such things?" she asked disheartened as he caressed her arm.

They lay on the cool ground, tangled in each other. Her breath sent a shiver up his spine as she clung to him. He stroked her hair and chuckled softly.

"You say the words as if I speak of nonsense. When I gain my freedom, I will work and gain yours as well. We will marry in the way of my people or yours; it holds no great concern to me as long as I may call you wife in the eyes of the Gods. I will make a fine living for us, and we will have land, a home."

"Will there be children?" she asked in a more whimsical tone. Placing her chin on his broad chest to look up at him.

He smiled wide, "Many as you can tend to. I would like five or six but at least five."

Her eyes widened "Five? By the Gods, you'll have to help with the tending to all of the children as well." she said, making circles on his chest with her index finger.

"If you wish it so." he said caressing her cheek. He would never get tired of her wishes...Ever. He wanted nothing but to spoil her.

"Crixus?" she spoke but her voice wasn't her own. It was a deep and slightly raspy male's voice.

Crixus opened his eyes, his dream ruined by the dirty Assyrian in front of him. It was one of his fondest dreams of her. "Have we arrived?" he asked looking at his sour, slightly annoyed.

"Yes, the gates are just beyond." The Assyrian said waving down the road.

He had met the Assyrian whom name he didn't care to remember a few suns ago on his journey. Spartacus and Doctore understood his refusal to join their fight. did he want to join in the fighting? Absolutely. To have his name forged into history and not forgotten from the infamous slave rebellion was what he strived for all theses years in the arena as a gladiator.

He no longer cared for the taste of glory. He only cared for Naevia.

He paid the Assyrian for the ride and went on his way without a word exchanged. He was going by the name Patorlus as there was still a hefty bounty for any slave that escaped from Capua after the massacre.

The massacre. Just thinking of it made his lips tug into a smile. Blood was shed with purpose and for justified reason. There was no honor amongst that house. Poisoned by that whore Lucretia. It felt good running a knife through her belly. Their bastard would not be corrupted by its mother's venom. Better with Hades than Lucretia. Her jealousy and his foolishness were the reasons his beloved was ripped from his arms.

To think about the last time he felt Naevia's arms around him. She was so frightened. The disgrace that she must be enduring at this very moment. It instantly shamed him. He would serve at her feet until he could not feel the sting of such shame.

He came to a small group that formed around the gates of Rome.

The Roman guard didn't deny Crixus presence. "What is your purpose, Gaul?" the guard spat at him, ignoring all the others who were begging for entry into the city.

"I am a butcher by trade. I have come in need for work." Crixus lie with a conviction that the guard seemed to believe.

"CLEAR A PATH!" he yelled at the guard as he and his fellow guard shoved them by force.

Crixus moved quickly through the crowd, passing through the gates. His focus...was the unfinished business of retrieving his paradise.


	2. Chapter 2

Her Soul

_Several Months Earlier_

"_I'll not ask you again, where is she?" Crixus asked the bond and bleeding slave trader. He had acquired quite a collection of "tools" to facilitate the answer to his questions out of various people. Such as, Roman soldiers and men with greed in their eyes. He had waited in the shadows to kidnap this particular man. Who had put his Naevia on the auction block and sold her to the highest bidder. They had been "conversing" for the past two hours by Crixus' count. _

"_You'll kill me if I tell you." he said as bloody drool trickled out the side of his mouth. _

_Crixus clenched his jaw grabbing a patch of the trader's hair making the battered man cry out. "Do not test me you fucking cunt. You will die for the blood on your hands."_

"_I didn't know!" the trader cried out. _

_Crixus' eyes narrowed "Not my concern. Tell me and only you will die. I won't have kill your two little boys or your pretty wife with the red hair. Decide?" Crixus said letting his hair go. _

_Crixus towered over the broken man, waiting patiently. _

"_The girl, Naevia. She's in Rome. I sold her to a Roman for a pretty penny. He was fond of her face said it calmed him." the trader confessed._

"_Who?" Crixus said so calmly that it made the trader tremble. _

"_Albus, son of Albinius." the trader said quickly._

_Crixus turned his face away from his captive...that name was familiar...Crixus breathing quickened as the realization set in. He couldn't believe this shit. _

"_You sold Naevia to the son of the Senator of Capua?" It was more of a rhetorical question. Crixus cut the bastard's throat. _

Crixus almost lost hope of finding her after they left the Lotus but Spartacus' lover Mira overheard where the Romans were taking Naevia...the first location at least. She had been moved to three different place. That fucking cunt whore Lucretia.

Crixus tossed the hood of his blanket over his head and descended into the busy Roman streets. He would never stop looking for Naevia. Never.

2 2 2

"I must prepare the household for your wife and children return, dominus." Naevia said without any emotional sway. "She will be very angry if things are not run a certain way."

Albus traced his thumb down Naevia's spinal cord. He sat up kissing her shoulder "I thought I told you not to call me that when we are alone." he chastised her playfully. "I am the Dominus in this villa. If she lays a hand, you must take it because she is your Domina but you inform me."

Naevia chuckled and looked at him "Yes, she already knows that I am your whore. That blatant favoritism..."

Albus gripped her "You are not a whore!" he said sternly. There was no playfulness in his tone. "The Gods have given you to me through unfortunate circumstances that was in the the hands of mortals. Here you are though in my arms." He started to lower her back down on the bed and Naevia protested.

"Albus, I must attend my duties." she put on her clothes.

He wrinkled his nose, noticeably annoyed. "I forgot all about that. I'll leave you to your duties then." he said, kissing her lips on last time.

As Naevia walked out of her room towards kitchen, she wiped her lips furiously with her hand. Trying to wipe the taste of her master off her lips. She belonged to no one. She gave herself to Crixus. Her body, mind, and inner being. She only belonged to him.

_Naevia had stopped speaking. Had stopped after she was first taken from the Lotus where she watched helplessly watched her beloved sob as she was dragged away. The first two owners detested her mutenesses as she refused to cry out after the rapes and the beatings. What seemed like years were simply a few moons, she was once again on the auction block. Skin scrubbed, perfumed and eyes sutted like a common prostitute. _

_She didn't put up a fight...this time. She was there naked...vacant...jaded...above the mortal coil. She turned left, turned right, bend over with her ass in the air. Just as the slave trader had ordered her to do. Stood up straight once more. Before long she was sold for a hefty sum. _

_The villa she was taken to was more lavish than what she'd ever been accustomed to. She heard the slave in charge whisper in hush tones to his master about her unstable state. As another two slaves forced her to stand in the center of the room on display._

_The master of the house ignored his slave as if the slave was a fly. He circled Naevia once, her head was lowered to the ground as he did it. She was ready for anything. The violation. The beating. The hard work. What did it truly matter? Her soul was left in Capua. She was simply a zombie now. _

_She felt his soft hands. Hands that had never seen a day of work tugged at her chin to look in his eyes. Her new master had kind eyes...that was something. Though she had learned early that sometimes the handsome ones were the most vicious. _

"_What do they call you?" he asked. _

_She didn't speak until he applied a little more pressure on her chin. "You are amongst friends. What do they call you?" he asked. _

"_They call me Naevia, Dominus." her voice monotone. _

"_Naevia, I believe you came from the villa of Batiatus in Capua. Where you there for the rebellion?" he asked._

"_No, I was sold to a different house a few suns before, Dominus."_

"_Well good because I wouldn't want any harm to come to you, if you decided to be influenced with those slaves ill attempt to rebel. I am Albus, your new Dominus. You have beautiful eyes...full of something, I'm not aware yet. You will not be harmed here. You are not a whore. Do you understand?" he asked._

_Naevia eyes locked with him "Yes, Dominus." _

Naevia stood in her quarters wiping his taste off her lips. The smell of him off her body. Only one man's smell she'd ever allowed to stay on her body...and he's dead.

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Crixus stared at the villa of Albus from across the road. Not drawing attention to him, he leaned on the stone wall. This was the second day that he had stood at this spot. The previous day...night...he had walked around the perimeter. Looking for week spots. Watching to see what entrances and exits that were weak and which slaves were allowed in and out of the villa.

A boy whose been frequently in and out came walking down the street. Crixus made his move. He grabbed the boy fast pulling him into a darkened alley.

"Calm yourself boy, I am not going to harm you." he said as the boy moved widely in his arms.

After a few moments, the boy calmed down. Crixus slammed the boy against the wall and looked him square in the eye. "Is there a slave by the name of Naevia in that villa?"

The boy shook his head furiously. "Yes, Naevia, she is kind. She is one of the heads of the staff."

"I need you to give her something for me. If she doesn't get it, I'll know who I need to cut. Now go." he released the boy from his grasp. The boy ran away.

2 2 2

Naevia was lined up with the rest of the slaves awaiting for the arrival of the woman of the villa.

Tymel, one of her favorite boys who worked the stables tugged on her garments. She smiled at him "Tymel, you must go out of sight. The domina will be arriving soon." she said warmly.

"I have something for you." he handed her something in a cloth and scampered off. The doors were opening as the domina arrived.

Naevia opened the cloth and her eyes widened as she quickly tucked it away in her garments. She looked towards the wooden doors and she almost forgot where she was...almost forgot her role...her heart...

2 2 2

Stopped...for a split second his heart stopped. It was her. The doors to the villa were closed quickly but there were no doubts in his mind. He had seen her...his soul. He would burn down that villa and Rome to retrieve her.


End file.
